I headed southwest Friday to visit my sister and her husband over the weekend - they live in Azle, Texas - just west of Ft Worth. Melanie tried to get in touch with the folks at the quarry in Midlothian to set up a collecting trip there - if you ever get the chance they have great pyrite and fossils there. But alas, it was not to happen this weekend - so we decided to drive about a bit and see where that would lead us. A few years ago I happened across an area around Decatur where there were ammonites so we headed in that direction - only found pieces/parts but found a few other fossils and pieces of coral and made a visit to Decatur to view the Petrified Wood Station and thought that perhaps you would enjoy viewing some of the pictures.
Aterwards, we drove over to Ladonia, Texas to the Sulfur River. In the past we have had good luck there finding fossils, petrified wood, and even a few pyrite suns. Again however it was not to be - apparently the high waters were not fast flowing - at least that is my guess - as the dark-gray mud-shale seems to have just bubbled up and covered most of the bottom of the river whereas in the past it was mostly gravels. Last time we were there it was easy to just walk along and watch and find pet. wood and various fossils.
Figure it is a combination of lots of folks collecting and most of the riverbed being just piles of that decaying shale.
The following day, we headed west to Mineral Wells - the object of this drive was actually not rock hounding but as we arrived early and had a couple hours to kill we naturally had to drive around a bit - again didn't find much in the way of fossils or pet wood but on one shale bank we stopped as noticed something that looked white about halfway up the slope - when we got out we were very happily surprised to see selenite crystals growing out of the shale. So we gathered up a small handful each and made note of the location for future visits. unfortuneately we did not have any collecting vessels with us nor my camera for this site - my sister plans to try to go again in a couple weeks and take a picture or two for me.
I had hoped to get a chance to pick up a few barite roses on the way home but time constraints prevented me from that site. I'll have to go again another time for that.
A very quick tiring trip but the selenite was a bonus as was seeing the petrified wood station again. If you are ever near Decatur, Texas you should drive by and have a look.
Hope you enjoyed
Docia
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